So much to post...
This picture is simply because I have a great love for overalls on babies... :)
...and this one is because she is just so stinkin' sweet!
Since we traveled for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I attempted to decorate for Christmas during the week before Thanksgiving. Annalee was bouncing (see background!) and Connor was "helping"...so I gave him a job...move every white marble from the ziplock bag into the flower vase. Success! He moved every single one...one. at. a. time.
Unfortunately, both kids came down with colds and Annalee's turned really bad - wasn't able to lay down flat, constantly dripping nose, having trouble eating, etc. We delayed our travels by 2 days so that we wouldn't share germs with anyone and would give the kids some more time to rest. Connor and Daddy got outside before we left to rake up all of our leaves!
...and jump in them, of course!
I usually make sugar cookies at Christmas time for our families, but we flew this year, so I make some Thanksgiving ones instead! It was my first attempt at "fancy" decorating...I had been wanting to try it for a long time!
Outlining turkeys!
The finished beauties.
I stuck with just 2 colors for my first try, so we had brown and orange turkeys, pumpkins, and leaves. I used a new sugar cookie recipe and a recipe for Royal Icing...they were so pretty and delicious (I think)! I liked how the ones with flat designs (shown below on the bottom tier) turned out most.
We went to VA to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a few birthdays with Jonathan's entire family! It was a flurry of activity - we got there Thanksgiving afternoon and jumped into cooking, gift-giving, and just laughing with family! I got hardly any pictures...but we took some great family pictures while we were there!
Annalee opening a "taggie" book from Aunt SA and Uncle Jay!
Oh...I made a lot more than just cookies. :) Here is Grandaddy with some pumpkin muffins and some stuffing muffins (bacon included)! I also made cornbread stuffing and sweet potato/apple gratin. We had lots of cooks and so much delicious food!
Annalee tried her first bites of turkey and loved it!
The kids enjoyed opening gifts together and
Yeah! First baseball glove!!!
Some other highlights of the holiday...
Kelly's mom was with us and our friend Dan came for Thanksgiving dinner. We were so thankful to be able to celebrate with all of them!
We survived a trip to and from VA (approx. 4 hours) with a toddler, a baby, and Otto. All in my Matrix. With lots of food and gifts packed. It was awesome.
When we pulled into town, we saw a warehouse that had a big Vineyard Vines sign tied onto it! This is a clothes company that reminds me of the Cape, where Jonathan and I honeymooned...Sarahann and I were able to go shop a little (EXTREMELY discounted!) before we came back to NC. SA, Cindy, and I also did some midnight shopping on Black Friday...so tired but fun!
We visited with our friends Sarah and Jason whose sweet little baby boy was born in October...5 weeks early! He is the cutest little peanut and we loved getting some time to talk with them...whenever we see them it's as if we never skipped a beat!
I will post some of the family pics that Matthew captured after Nana's New Year card goes out. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment